


Last Goodbye

by szm



Series: After the End [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-21
Updated: 2012-03-21
Packaged: 2017-11-02 08:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/366831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/szm/pseuds/szm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Moved from lj)</p><p>This exists in the same universe as Ianto's Diary but it isn't necessary to have read that first.</p><p>Added scene between Jack and the Doctor from 'End of Time'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Goodbye

When the Doctor got back to the Tardis Jack was sitting outside. He held the key in his hands and was turning it over and over. 

“How did you get here before me?” asked the Doctor stuffing his hands into his trouser pockets. He was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

Jack looked up. He threw the Tardis key up into the air and snatched it back with one hand. He held up the other so the Doctor could see his wristband and raised an eyebrow.

“You got it fixed? Jack I can’t…” started the Doctor.

Jack was suddenly on his feet. “You can’t what,” he said calmly. It was worse somehow that he wasn’t shouting. Jack should shout. Jack should be full of passion and fire. Not broken like this. “You can’t let me have this technology. If I’d have had it then…”

“What?” asked the Doctor getting into Jack’s space, trying to force a reaction, any reaction. 

Jack just took a step back, crumpled in on himself. “I wouldn’t have had to…” he said quietly almost to himself. “I could have saved him. Both of them.”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I’m so sorry.”

Jack looked at the Doctor with tears in his eyes. “I could have gone back. I could have saved Ia… Steven.”

The Doctor felt his hearts break again in sympathy for his friend. He couldn’t fix this, it was all too broken. “Why not go back now?” he asked softly.

The sound Jack made bore the same resemblance to laughter that a pile of broken glass shards bears to a mirror. “I can’t!” he finally shouted. “Because it’s a fucking fixed point. If I change it... I nearly tried anyway. You knew, you must have known, it’s why you didn’t come. It’s why…” he looked between the wristband and the Doctor with disgust.

“I knew you’d try, because you’re still human, Jack. You had to find out you couldn’t on your own.” The Doctor kept his voice low, trying to calm the distraught man in front of him. “It's not the end of Torchwood Jack..." 

“I can’t,” choked Jack. “Even after all these years, I can’t hear the word without running a mile. And you turn up, point me at a pretty boy, disappear, and suddenly it’s all fine?”

“I was trying,” started the Doctor suddenly unsure how to express the thought. It was a strange and unfamiliar feeling. “I was trying to let you be… you.”

“What?” asked Jack indignantly. He scrubbed a hand across his eyes which did nothing to hide the tears.

“I was always telling you to stop, saying it wasn’t the time. Maybe I was wrong.” The Doctor looked up at the ceiling for a beat, “No, I was wrong.” He fixed Jack in his gaze. “Me, not you.”

Jack stared back. “Thank you,” he said, probably from shock.

There was a moment where it seemed that the universe held it’s breath. Then the penny dropped for Jack.

“You’re dying,” he stated.

The Doctor nodded. “Radiation poisoning,” he said simply.

Jack pulled him into a hug. The Doctor let himself enjoy it, just being close to another being. He couldn’t even feel the weight of Jack immortality, a side effect of the poisoning, for the first time he was grateful for it. To just hug Jack, it’s a good last request.

**

Jack watched the Tardis disappear. That was the last time he'd see the Doctor. It was hard to comprehend. 

Because even if he did meet the 'new' Doctor it wouldn't be the same. Not after what Jack was about to do. 

He had the name of the 456. He knew where there planet was. He had a spaceship.

Time to finish this story.


End file.
